Bridge in the Tri-Cities: Two Heart Aces

Opening Lead: King of diamonds.

East had the ace of diamonds tucked neatly under the queen of hearts. It fooled everyone, even West who normally sees everything, and who was looking at the ace of hearts in his own hand. North’s king of diamonds held the trick and he could not see any future in continuing them. He switched to a club and declarer went up with the ace and called for the ace of hearts. Everyone played a heart but soon discovered that the ace of hearts was the ace of diamonds!

The Bidding: West probably should have bid 1NT instead of 2H. East thought he had a doubleton diamond and four hearts to the ace. With the actual hand, he would have passed 2H, but he didn’t think he had the actual hand.

The Play: The Director was called and he ruled that the defenders two heart cards were minor penalty cards and the trick was cancelled. Play went back to declarer calling a card from dummy with the ace of diamonds now placed with the other diamonds. There was no harm to declarer or the defenders.

What Happened? Declarer went down two and could have escaped for down one. It didn’t matter as even down one would have been a bottom. All the other scores were positive for E/W. E/W can make 3H or better yet, 3NT.

Next Week. I have not seen two similar aces in the same deal in over 60 years of playing bridge; but three days after this strange occurrence, lightning struck again! This time the disaster was suffered by the defenders. Stay tuned.

This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Bridge in the Tri-Cities: Two Heart Aces."